(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiple speed automatic transmission for a vehicle and more particularly, to a gear train enabling twelve forward speeds and three reverse speeds.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A typical shift mechanism of an automatic transmission utilizes a combination of a plurality of planetary gear sets. A power train of such an automatic transmission that includes the plurality of planetary gear sets changes rotating speed and torque received from a torque converter of the automatic transmission, and accordingly changes and transmits the changed torque to an output shaft.
It is well known that when a transmission realizes a greater number of shift speeds, speed ratios of the transmission can be more optimally designed and therefore a vehicle can have better fuel mileage and better performance. For that reason, an automatic transmission that enables more shift speeds is under constant investigation.
In addition, with the same number of speeds, features of a power train such as durability, efficiency in power transmission, and size depend a lot on the layout of combined planetary gear sets. Therefore, designs for a combining structure of a power train are also under constant investigation.
For a manual transmission, too many speeds cause a driver the inconvenience of excessive manual shifting. However, for an automatic transmission, a transmission control unit automatically executes shifting by controlling the operation of the power train, and therefore more speeds usually implies more merits.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.